Ultimecia
Sorceress Ultimecia (in Japanese: アルティミシア, Arutimishia) is the primary antagonist of the 1999 videogame Final Fantasy VIII. She is an incredibly powerful sorceress from the future, who seeks to compress past, present and future into one, erasing all life but her own. She sends her mind to the present time and possesses the sorceress Edea Kramer, but the primary protagonist Squall Leonhart and his friends manage to track her down to her very own era and destroy her for good. Appearance Ultimecia is a woman of average height looking around thirty years old, whose undeniable beauty is somehow downplayed by her strange clothing, her horn-like hair and her tattooed body. She wears a form-fitting crimson gown that exposes her chest, abdomen and legs; with a black fur ruffle collar that extands to the edge of the bodice, padded shoulders and an extended hemline that drags along the floor behind her. She wears an ornate headdress that makes her silver hair look like horns, with two long locks left free to hang framing her face. She also wears ornately jewelled necklaces and earrings. Her face, stomach and legs are tattooed with coloured, lined patterns, her hands are coloured purple and she walks barefoot. She has several altered features due to both her evil nature and her Sorceress Power: such as yellow eyes, pointed ears, black feathered wings and long claw-like nails. Ultimecia is notable for the form she assumes as the final boss: A gigantic, hideous, twisted, multi-coloured, oddly symmetrical abomination, almost impossible to describe properly. She has blue bat-like wings full of holes on her head, a strange array of purple blade-like protrusions on her back, arms at hip level, and several features reminiscent of her human form: her horns and the strange membrane-like thing figuring her gown. Much worse, she has a black void with a flickering light instead of a face, her chest is open or with several layers of "skin", her gown-like membrane is filled with a starry night, and her human body is hanging upside-down where her legs should be; naked, covered in blue and red veins and with dead-like white eyes. Personality Ultimecia is cruel, relentless, power-hungry, self-centred, conceited, aloof, misanthropic and vengeful. She is cold and regal, but hides seething anger under a collected exterior. She displays scathing contempt and resentment towards mankind, evidenced in her hateful speech to the Galbadian people after publicly killing President Vinzer Deling. She regards the protagonists with even higher levels of contempt (mixed with a loathing respect, as she calls Squall "an impressive nuisance"), due to her burning hatred of SeeDs (witch hunters). She discards anyone she no longer needs, kills thousands without second thought, and regards anyone as beneath her. In Dissidia, she is more cynical than outright hateful, being suave and devious, with hints a melancholic side. She is not entirely devoid of humanity though, taking pity on Seifer Almasy and making him her Sorceress Knight, when she could have left him being sentenced to death. Also, some of her lines in Dissidia hint that she miss the happiness and innocence of her younger days, with which she strives to renew no matter the cost. Ultimecia also proves to be highly intelligent and manipulative: she easily uses the Galbadian bureaucracy to make her way towards its highest spheres of influence; she manipulates Vinzer Deling and Seifer to do her biddings by playing on their insecurities and desires; she possesses Rinoa but plunges her into a coma to lead the protagonists where she wants them to and only uses her "host" when she needs to; and finally, she displays keen strategic skills during the worldwide war she ignited between Galbadia and the other two Gardens. By reading through Ultimecia's words and actions, it becomes obvious that she is fully aware of her upcoming defeat against the "Legendary SeeDs", whom she awaits without fear. Her goal of Time Compression is driven by her desire to overcome her demise by creating a chaotic and unchanging universe where she would live forever and where no SeeD could threaten her life, not minding being alone for eternity. By doing so, she would reverse Fate itself and would be able to endlessly torment those who were supposed to kill her. It is also made clear that her contempt for mankind is due to the intense persecution that she (and maybe every Sorceress before her) suffered from the people of her own time. It is hinted (and confirmed in the Ultimania guide) that the future generations knew what she did in Squall's era and wanted to prevent her ascension to power, prejudicing her and her kind for crimes still not committed yet. Moreover, she has rather extravagant tastes, and revels in luxury and style. She lives surrounded with riches, lords over her domain sitting on exquisitely carved thrones and dresses with lavish if peculiar clothing, with elaborate headdresses and ornaments. The parade in her honour in Galbadia is magnificent, filled with light and coloured crystal, yet exceedingly glittering and luxurious. Finally her Castle, while being creepy and gloomy befitting a Dark Queen of her level, is filled with opulent ornaments and furniture and contains an impressive art collection. Powers and Abilities As expected of the primary antagonist in a Final Fantasy game, Ultimecia is an incredibly powerful and skilled sorceress. This is due to her own already immense power, and more importantly to the magic she absorbed from sorceresses of all eras, gathering all the Sorceress Power in existence and gaining god-like abilities. Ultimecia wields a wide array of "common" powers, including but not limited to an extended perception of her surroundings; enhanced strength and endurance; high-level telepathy, mind-reading and telekinesis; levitation, teleporting and phasing through solid matter; vast control of the weather and the elements; compelling people to the point of turning them into mindless, blindly obedient puppets and making immense crowds do what she wants without them noticing anything; paralyzing many people at once while keeping them able to see and talk; shape-shifting and altering her own body features in seconds; raising defensive force fields; and infusing objects with her magic to animate them or alter them as she wishes. Ultimecia's own Sorceress Power is based on Time and Space, which she controls to an exeptional extent. It shows when she absorbs her fallen enemies into the void of time, or when she separates the party in different planes during the final battle. (She chooses three opponents at random and isolates the others, making them appear out of nowhere when she brings them forth.) Another example is when she makes Griever her Guardian Force (an immensely powerful summoned monster) remain in battle for as long as she wants to instead of disappearing after a single attack. In Dissidia, she even displays the ability to freeze time for an undefined length during which she is the only one able to act and to move. She seems able to keep it stopped for as long as she wants and restarts it when she needs. Ultimecia can perform feats that transcend the limits of magic and warp reality itself to a huge extent. While possessing a much less powerful sorceress, she proved able to create monstrous clones of people and to turn mere statues into flesh-and-blood beings. When not limited by a host, she can create huge and powerful monsters bound to her will from small objects and likely from nothing, corrupt Guardian Forces into her slaves, transform and empower various beings, or make machines sentient. She was either able to bewitch her immense castle to make it fly or even to entirely create it with such properties from scratch. She can also seal people's powers, like she does to the protagonists when within her castle, and even destroy one of her opponent entire stock of magic in battle. When she Junctions two people, she literally fuses them instead of merely linking their minds; (as when she junctions Rinoa to Sorceress Adel's body and when she Junction herself to Griever). She can also use Junction to possess any other sorceress, and gain almost unlimited access to any living being's mind, enabling her to draw as much power and knowledge as she wants from it, stealing spells from the protagonists during the final battle. To a further extent, she can bring what she finds in her victims' minds into reality. She creates Griever through this mean, by reaching into Squall's thoughts and giving life to his conception of the most powerful Guardian Force that can exist, resulting in a demon as powerful as she is. During the final battle, Ultimecia vastly increases her already ludicrous power twice. First by fusing herself with Griever and adding his might to her own, then by assuming her mightiest form and making her power skyrocket to an unfathomable extent. Under this form, not only does she gain access to unique and highly dangerous spells, but her mere existence is enough to tear through the time and space continuum and to gradually absorb the entire universe. Even worse, her incredible reality-warping abilities increase to the point that she becomes able to make her own thoughts come true. As such, she comes up with the most devastating spell she can think off and draws it from her mind, becoming able to cast it for real as many times as she wishes. Role in the Game War against Galbadia At the beginning of the game, the SeeDs, an elite mercenary force meant to protect people from military and supernatural threats, sends the protagonists (newly promoted cadets) to stand against the powerful nation of Galbadia, which is occupying its neighbour countries. It soon appears that the mysterious sorceress Edea Kramer, the trusted soon-to-be ambassador of the Galbadian President Vinzer Deling, far from appeasing the tensions as advertised is secretly fanning the flames of war. The story begins when a resistance faction known as the Forest Owls, led by a young girl named Rinoa Heartilly, hires Squall's SeeDs team's assistance against Galbadia. Later, the renegade SeeD cadet Seifer Almasy tries and fails to murder President Deling, with Rinoa and Squall's team as witnesses. Edea then teleports in the room, concealing her face under a mask. She paralyzes everyone and easily talks Seifer into following her. Attempting to stop Edea on her own while the SeeDs prepare to kill her, Rinoa infiltrates the presidential residence with a special bangle that would render Edea powerless. Alas, Edea notices Rinoa sneaking in, recognizes the bangle, and telekinetically knocks her out with no effort before compelling Rinoa to follow her like a puppet. Shortly after, the Sorceress kills President Deling by stabbing him through the chest with her bare hand and seizes power in Galbadia, insulting the crowd who still cheers for her due to her magic. Edea then gives life to two Iguions statues (powerful reptilian monsters), and orders them to devour Rinoa, who is later rescued by Squall. Meanwhile, the SeeDs' plot ends up in a failure, as Irvine Kineas the sniper meant to shoot Edea hesitates and gets noticed. When he finally fires, she blocks the bullet with a magic barrier; forcing the protagonists to directly engage the Sorceress. The SeeDs defeat Seifer who has become Edea's Sorceress Knight and right-hand-man, but Edea near fatally pierces Squall with a conjured icicle, and has most of the SeeDs imprisoned and tortured for information. The Battle of the Gardens The protagonists are freed from jail by their friends who escaped imprisonment, only to learn that in retaliation for the attempt on her life, Edea ordered a missile attack targeting both Trabia Garden and Balamb Garden (the military academies where the SeeDs are trained). While nothing can be done to prevent Trabia's destruction, they manage to activate special machinery that turns Balamb Garden into a mobile fortress, enabling it to scarcely escape the missiles. Later, Squall and his friends remember their childhood, which they had forgotten due using Guardian Forces. (Irvine remembered, since he never used Guardian Forces until now, hence his hesitation.) It appears that that they were all (including Seifer but excluding Rinoa) raised in an orphanage run by Edea herself, who was back then a kind and loving woman, the opposite of the remorseless tyrant she is now. Moreover, it is revealed that it was Edea and her husband Cid Kramer who created of the SeeDs and the Gardens, adding to the mystery. They soon learn that Edea is using the Galbadian army in a worldwide search for Ellone, a young woman from the orphanage with the unique ability to send people's minds in the past, burning cities on their wake. In the same time the sorceress personally took control of Galbadia's formerly independent mobile Garden to track down Balamb Garden. Galbadia Garden attacks and invades Balamb over the ruins of Edea's orphanage, forcing the SeeDs manage to storm the enemy fortress and confront Edea, whom they defeat at last. Unfortunately, Rinoa inexplicably falls into a coma shortly after. Search for Esthar When the protagonists finally enter the ruined orphanage, they meet the real Edea Kramer, who reveals that she was possessed all along by the true villain, a sorceress from the future named Ultimecia, who wants to compress time into a single moment, threatening the whole universe. To do so she needs to find both Ellone and Sorceress Adel. Seventeen years ago, Adel, the tyrant of the futuristic nation of Esther attempted to take over the world in the gruesome Sorceress War, but her own people rebelled and managed to trap her in a stasis chamber that they sent into space, with help from Squall's father Laguna Loire (who left for war and never learnt that he has a son). To cast the Time Compression spell, Ultimecia needs to have her mind in the future, the present and the past at the same time. The machine she is using to reach the game's present era cannot go further into time, so she needs Ellone's power to send Adel's mind back in her own past. Squall's team travel to Esthar, hoping to find a cure for Rinoa. They are joined by Edea, who hopes to relinquish her Sorceress Power to prevent Ultimecia from possessing her again; power which she unknowingly passed to Rinoa after her final defeat. When the protagonists finally reach Esthar, with Squall, carrying Rinoa on his back, they are led into space to the Lunar Base where Adel is constantly watched over. There, Squall finally meets Ellone and Laguna and asks their help to save Rinoa. It now appears that Ultimecia took advantage of the power transfer to possess Rinoa and cause her coma, knowing that they would bring her to Eshtar to find a cure. She takes control of Rinoa to unseal Adel's Tomb before leaving her to die in space. Meanwhile, she has Seifer, whom she healed after his defeat, take over the Lunatic Pandora, an ancient weapon devised by Adel’s scientists to cause a Lunar Cry: the fall of countless monsters from the moon, using it to bring Adel back to Earth. Once again, Rinoa is saved by Squall, who becomes her Sorceress Knight. The SeeDs quickly form a plan to defeat Ultimecia for good: They intend to kill Adel, so that her powers would be transferred to Rinoa, forcing Ultimecia to possess her again and enabling Ellone to send both sorceress' minds into Adel's past. Ultimecia would then cast the Time Compression spell, but Ellone would halt the process by bringing back their minds, causing a time warp that the Seeds would use to travel to Ultimecia's future era and settle their score once and for all. Later, Seifer abducts Ellone and Rinoa, unknowingly serving the SeeDs' plan, and brings them to Adel, who is now possessed by Ultimecia. The Seeds reach Adel whom they destroy, putting their own plan into motion. The Final Showdown After a long journey through a warped universe, in which they must fight eleven Sorceresses from every era, the protagonists end up in the future world under Ultimecia's tyrannical rule, devastated and plunged into an everlasting night. They enter the sorceress' gloomy flying Castle, with the corpses of all the elite White SeeDs who died fighting her scattered all around. Inside the castle, a spell cast by Ultimecia seals their powers into her eight highly powerful monster servants. They must destroy them all to regain their abilities and stand a chance against her. After a long and gruelling battle which tears through the fabric of time and space, Ultimecia is defeated at last and the protagonists manage to return to the present. However, the sorceress has barely survived and travels through the Time Warp as well, desperately clinging to life. She ends up in Edea's orphanage, thirteen years before the game's events, closely followed by Squall. Ultimecia dies at long last, having unwillingly created the Time Paradox that would lead her to possess Edea; and completed the cycle of time-travel between the SeeDs and her. After advising Past Edea to create the SeeDs and the Gardens, Present Squall nearly loses himself in the void of Time, but he ultimately gets back to his own time and reunites with his friends. As the Final Boss The final battle is very long and difficult, being divided in four stages: the fight against Ultimecia in her normal sorceress form; the fight against her Guardian Force Griever; the fight against Ultimecia who junctioned herself to Griever; and finally, the fight against Ultimecia's final and most powerful form. She chooses three party members at random, meaning you cannot select your characters for the entire battle. Worse, if a character dies without being resurrected fast enough, she absorbs them into time and permanently removes them from play, before replacing them once again at random. This proves extremely irksome if your party is not well balanced; or worse if your only healer-reviver gets removed from play. It is highly advised to have the whole party at similar levels and several healers and defenders. The best strategy for the entire battle is to Cast Meltdown (a spell doubling the target's subsequent damage), to cast Aura on your characters to unlock their Limit Breaks (mightiest attacks), and to pummel her with Limit Break combos. Make sure to use strong protections to heal your characters often. Sorceress Form This form is the least powerful but must never be underestimated. She uses a wide array of dangerous attack spells, including Meltdown, Bio (damage and poison), Maelstrom (divides the party’s life-points), Quake and Tornado (heavy damage to the whole party), Holy (heavy damage), and Death (instant kill depending on the target’s level); as well as support spells, including Dispel (cancels a magic advantage), Double (casts all spells twice in a row), Confuse (the target may attack his allies), and Draw (takes a spell from her foes). Always dispel Double or Confuse and do not waste any time; the longer the battle lasts, the stronger and angrier Ultimecia gets. She will begin to heal herself, to cast Triple (casts all spells thrice in a row) instead of Double and will only use her most powerful attacks. Griever Ultimecia creates the mightiest Guardian Force ever from Squall's mind and makes him fight in her place. Griever is a dangerous enemy who can remove a spell from a character's inventory, preventing its use and cancelling any junction to the character's stats. He uses dangerous attacks and he can draw spells from the party. He casts Doom (kills the target after a few turns), Pain (poisons the target, lowers the accuracy of the attacks and prevents the target from spellcasting), and Triple. When sufficiently damaged, he starts to use his most devastating attack: Shockwave Pulsar, which inflicts critical damage to the whole party. Try to Draw Shockwave Pulsar from him with Quistis. Ultimecia-Griever Ultimecia junctions herself to Griever and combine their might. Do not summon Guardian Forces for she instantly destroys them. The junctioned sorceress will create one, and later two Helixes: small metallic creatures that can blast rays on the party and give her access to fearsome magic attacks such as Ultima (the strongest spell available), Flare, and Meteor, as well as her special attack: Great Attractor, which hugely damages the whole party. Focus only on Ultimecia-Griever, and use strong protections (beware for she can dispel them). When damaged enough, she loses her tails and her Helixes, and returns to her human form’s spells but does not becomes any less dangerous. Final Form When Ultimecia seems defeated, she reappears under one of the weirdest forms ever assumed by a Final Boss. She starts absorbing the entire time and space continuum and engages the most challenging stage of the battle. This grotesque but formidable demon can instantly destroy any Guardian Force and dispel your magic advantages. She attacks mainly with Hell's Judgement, a unique spell that reduces the entire party's life-points to one. The Party must be healed immediately after, lest Ultimecia finishes off one of them with a mere Claw Swipe. Later in the battle, she creates the ultimate spell Apocalypse, which deals extremely high damage to the entire party. Ultimecia casts it very often, so use your mightiest protections. You can prevent her from casting it by destroying her upside-down, lower half but she will then use Holy, Flare, Meteor and Ultima which coupled with Hell's Judgement can be even deadlier. Role in Dissidia: Final Fantasy Overall Presentation In Dissidia: Final Fantasy and its prequel Dissidia Duodecim, Ultimecia antagonizes Squall as a "servant" of Chaos God of Discord, in his war against Cosmos, Goddess of Harmony . Yet, she only pretends to serve Chaos and plots alongide Emperor Matheus Palamecia, manipulating heroes and villains alike to take over the multiverse. Whenever Chaos or Cosmos get destroyed, the Divine Dragon Shinryu revives them and restarts the war. As such, they only side with Chaos until he kills Cosmos, and plan to prevent her revival before dealing with their "master". Unlike the original game, Ultimecia wishes to compress time to make everything exist for eternity under her rule. In Dissidia Ultimecia proves very deceptive, shape-shifting into Cosmos to misguide Squall and weaken his resolve. She is also sarcastic, sharp-tongued and mockingly seductive, taunting and berating allies and enemies alike, stating that they are the puppets of their fate and their own illusions. She considers the never-ending battle between Chaos and Cosmos pointless and despises them both. Ultimecia attempts to recruit other villains, and separates Squall from his comrades to make him easier to deal with. She ambushes Squall in her castle alongside Garland but Zidane appears to take care of her ally and Squall defeats her. After Cosmos' death, she prepares to compress time but Squall confronts her and defeats her for good. In Dissidia Duodecim Ultimecia returns in Dissidia Duodecim, in which her secondary attire looks like the possessed Sorceress Edea. It appears that the events of Dissidia are not the first cycle of the war between Chaos and Cosmos. Ultimecia toys with the protagonists' life and resolve, as they struggle to contain the invasion of Manikins (crystal-born doppelgangers of the playable characters) summoned by Chaos' servants. Cosmos ultimately sacrifices herself to seal the hordes of Manikins into the Rift and is resurrected, leading to the first game’s events. In Dissidia NT In this arcade sequel/reboot and its Playstation 4 adaptation Dissidia: Final Fantasy NT, the world in which Cosmos and Chaos waged war was destroyed for good after the conflict was ended for good in the last cycle, leaving place to a new world claimed by both Cosmos' and Chaos' reincarnation of sorts, who seek it as a haven: Materia, Goddess of Machinery and Protection, and Spiritus, God of Magic and Destruction. Heroes and villains must once again do battle, and once again Ultimecia confronts Squall. As a playable character Ultimecia is a "Sorceress Fusilier" master of long-range and aerial fighting, focusing more on many connecting hits than raw might. She fires energy arrows that she can stop and redirect, barrages of energy swords, bouncing energy axes, and energy spears. Her attacks, based on her Final Fantasy VIII spells manifest as energy blasts or explosive homing runes. Her EX Mode (powered up mode) junctions Griever to her (and not the other way around). She can freeze and use her EX Burst (ultimate attack), "Time Compression": a multi-directional barrage of energy bolts followed by "Sorceress Heart" a giant explosion. In Dissidia NT, Ultimecia retains similar attacks with slightly altered names and effects, though she can now make rain arrows on her foes, conjure spears from the grounds in front of her, and her energy blasts and magic runes have bigger area of effect. She has a gauge of Black Magic called Maleficium that rises the more hits she lands, and can vastly empower her attacks. Appearances in other games Ultimecia is featured in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, a game consisiting in music sequences divided between Field, Event and Battle, in which the player has to hold notes in tune to the series' most famous musical themes. In the first game, Ultimecia appears under Edea's possessed aspect for the Waltz For The Moon Event Sequence. In the sequel Curtain Call, she is fought during a Battle Sequence. Ultimecia is fought as a boss in the action puzzle game Pictlogica Final Fantasy, in which the player must defeat enemies in RPG-style while solving puzzles and riddles. Edea, possessed by Ultimecia, also makes an appearance. Both Ultimecia and the possessed Edea are featured as separate characters in the mobile game Final Fantasy: Airborne Brigade, in which the protagonists must prove themselves to the Guardian Forces and save the world from a monster invasion. They serve as allies and summonable Legends (assist characters). Ultimecia attacks with her Dissidia moves, while Edea favours "classical" Final Fantasy spells. Edea also serves as a boss. Ultimecia and Edea appear as cards in the social collecting game Final Fantasy Artniks, in which the protagonists are tasked by the Dragon King Bahamut to spin the tale of the world he summoned them into to help shape it. Ultimecia's card features her Dissidia artwork, while Edea's displays the original game's art and Arc Words Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec (anagram of "Succession of Witches" and "Love"). Edea, possessed by Ultimecia appears in the free-to-play game Final Fantasy: Record Keeper, which re-enacts the series' most memorable battles. She first serves as a boss, fought pretty much in the same way as the first battle against her in Final Fantasy VIII, then aided by Seifer, and fought like in the second battle, thus more challenging. She can later be recruited as a party member. She focuses solely on Black Magic mostly dealing elemental damage and multi-target spells, though she can cast defensive spells. Ultimecia makes a cameo in the puzzle video game Puzzle and Dragons featuring characters from RPG games, including of course Final Fantasy. She is fought as a boss, and later serves as a Five Star Unit. She fights with the same spells as in the first stage of the original final battle against her. Finally, she makes a cameo in the IOS/Android, cooperative multiplayer strategy game Monster Strike, in which the players must fight and capture all sort of monsters. In the Final Fantasy collaboration, she appears under her normal form and her fusion with Griever from Dissidia. Trivia *Ultimecia's name might be a reference to the fact that she is the most powerful of all sorceresses, in the same way as Ultima is the most powerful common attack spell. *In the German and Italian translations, the Sorceress is known as Artemisia: a common name for a witch in Italian folklore. It must be noted that two famous queens of the Greek city of Caria were named Artemisia. *In the same way, the Sorceress is known as Artemisa in the Spanish translation. *The English translation of Ultimecia's hateful speech to the Galbadians radically differs from the original Japanese version. *The English translation of the game replaces the letter 'c' with the letter 'k' when Ultimecia speaks (lest she possesses someone or appears under her final form), to figure some sort of accent. This would later be dropped in the Dissidia games. *Ultimecia is heard laughing when the first stage of the final battle in Final Fantasy VIII begins. *During the first stage of the final battle, Ultimecia uses the "Stop" ability that temporarily prevents its target from acting, mirroring her power to stop the flow of time. *Ultimecia and Rinoa appear as opposites in almost every way: one having black wings and grey hair, wearing an extravagant red gown and summoning a lion-like monster; the other having black hair, wearing a simple, blue dress, using her dog in battle, and having white wings manifesting when she calls upon her power. *An extremely popular fan-theory assumes that Ultimecia is in fact Rinoa's future self, driven to evil after outliving Squall. It was stated wrong in the Ultimania guide, which revealed Ultimecia's past and motivations, and explained that no sorceress could live that long, yet many Final Fantasy fans remain persuaded that it is true. 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